


(K)Not Your Fingers Through Mine

by orphan_account



Category: Free!
Genre: Fate, M/M, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 02:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5479325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fate has a funny way of messing around with things. This isn't the case with Makoto and Rin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(K)Not Your Fingers Through Mine

**Author's Note:**

> For Makorin Week Day 2: Fate. 
> 
> The title is a play on a lyric from Chasing Cars (because I'm a cliche shit), also because I used to think it was the correct lyric for years oops

"Do you believe in fate?"

Chin still in the palms of his hands, Makoto looks up from the floor, now distracted from their homework to stare at Rin on Makoto’s bed, confused at his sudden question.

"Why do you ask?"

Rin's cheeks are pink. They're just barely so, a splotchy patch on the apples: too light to match his hair, too dark to blend into his skin. In the few weeks he’s gotten to know him, Makoto’s learned that Rin gets flustered easy, but will instantly deny so if he gets called out on it. 

Maybe Rin's farther than him in their reading. Makoto leaves through the pages in the fables they need to read for class, but he knows Rin can't be that much farther than him. It's only been two months since Rin has transferred, but Makoto knows that he kicks his new friend's butt in classic Japanese.

Besides, he doesn't understand how one can discuss fate when Makoto is currently reading the stories of Prince Yamato Takeru, but alas.

Rin answers, "It's really romantic, isn't it? Knowing that something...someone...is out there destined to happen to or to meet you?

No, not really. Makoto doesn't think that's the case. Bad things, like the old man or his goldfish dying, that's not fate. But this isn't the answer Rin wants, so instead, Makoto chuckles, "Rin, you really enjoy looking at things through the point of view if a shoujo character, don't you?"

"I do not!" Rin's cheeks are darkening to his hair color now. He turns his face to the black lamp on Makoto's desk, cheeks puffed.

Makoto laughs to break the tension, "Do _you_ think that fate is real?"

Rin nervously laughs, playing with the strings of his red hoodie , twirling them around his fingers for just a few moments before sighing and plopping down on Makoto’s bed, looking at the ceiling.

“Of course! I think we accomplish things on our own, and it’s up to us to get the things we want through our hard work."

Makoto can’t help but giggle when Rin puffs his cheeks again and immediately adds, “But that’s also not romantic! Hard work is great but where’s the beauty in that?"

Rin then pauses and starts playing with the red strings again. “So I do. I think it’s a like fate that the four of us are here at this time and that’s why we have our swim team and that it works so well. I mean, sure, Nagisa joined our team because I thought he was a strong enough swimmer, and I came here because of how I saw Haru swim, but it’s fate that we all came across each other in the first place. And that we’ll always keep swimming together.

“I don’t know…I also like the idea of one person out there for me. I don’t know where they are, or what they’re doing, but just like how our team came together, just like how I met my friends in Sano…it’ll be the same with the person I spend the rest of my life with."

There’s silence and then Rin starts to manically laugh, hand rushing to the back of his head. “Sorry, I think I got carried away."

“No, no, it’s fine! That’s…that’s beautiful, Rin."

Rin boasts a smile before repositioning himself on Makoto’s bed, leaning forward to jab his finger into Makoto’s forehead, the only thing he can reach. “You never answered my question though!! What do you think?"

Makoto swallows. He doesn’t believe in fate. Bad things don’t happen if fate exists. But the disappointment one shows when told the truth hurts Makoto, and he’s come to realize he especially hates seeing Rin upset.

Thus, he responds, “Of course!” with a wide grin.

Rin’s face is nothing but an even bigger smile, taking up the majority and the rest of his features accommodating to match.

~

Rin tosses a can to Makoto, cooly using his other to pop open his own tab at the same time. He makes a face when he takes a couple of gulps, nose scrunching and tongue sticking out in disgust after he swallows, glaring back at the vending machine as they leave the convenience store as if it’s its fault for holding such shitty alcohol.

For a second, Makoto is reminded of a Rin before Australia, whose heart shined through his eyes, glittering at every potential for something great, no matter how miniscule. These seconds happen often and it makes Makoto's heart soar, reminded of the boy with big dreams with an equally big heart who, despite his penchant for working his ass off, believes that some things are determined by fate.

"You think too much." Rin playfully punches Makoto's arm as they climb onto a large rock on the beach, and Makoto can’t help but forgive him in no time flat, what with Rin’s mirthful close-lipped smile, an innocent glimmer in his eyes intensified by the sunset.

Honestly, sometimes, moments like these, with a good friend next to him, Makoto doesn't mind the ocean, even when it's getting dark. The pull of the tides is gentle, a soft, reassuring sound, and the colors of the sunset reflect in the water, warm and orange, the edge peacefully taking in the sun to give it rest for the night.

It’s even more beautiful here with Rin, walking next to Makoto like a human form of the sunset. Of course, Rin won’t accept rest that easily, preferring to work until his bones give out, but his crimson hair, the way the orange of the sky bounces off his pale skin, down to his skinny maroon jeans…Makoto can imagine his friend gracing fashion magazines as an international athlete, a human god lit up by the sunset backdrop but glowing even brighter, posing under headlines boasting to readers about _A Sight You’ve Never Seen Before!_

“Makoto?” Rin’s eyebrows furrow together. “Is everything okay?"

Makoto coughs and covers up his distraction about how attractive the friend next to him is by downing approximately half of his can in two gulps. He smiles as he swirls what’s left of his beer and says, “Do you think everyone got home okay?"

Rin rolls his eyes but laughs, “Of course. Sousuke and Haru aren’t incompetent. Besides, karaoke was perfectly walkable from Samezuka and the train station."

“You do remember that Sousuke somehow always walks in the opposite direction and Haru aimlessly wanders everywhere. The others are screwed."

“Shit.” Rin looks down at his phone sticking out of his bag two meters below them, nestled on the sand. “Let’s just…call them later. I’m sure they’re okay. Besides, this is our escape from the absolute clusterfuck of everyone getting together. As fun as it was…but don’t tell them I said that."

Rin's cheeks are tinted red. Makoto wonders if this is from the alcohol racing into his system, or perhaps him preparing to say something silly after saying something embarrassing already, knowing that it will be but going ‘fuck it’ and will do so anyway: the Matsuoka Rin Way.

“Speaking of…you know, when I was in Australia, I would think about Sousuke, or Haru, and wonder how they were doing. If we were going to meet again, even if I moved back to Japan."

So it’s the second one, though Makoto catches the light giggle and sway in Rin’s movements, a petal falling in the wind, as he says it. But he understands, continues to stay silent when Rin continues, “But I knew no matter what, I’d find them somehow. It’s a bit idealistic really, something that my dumbass younger self would buy into, but it’s what kept me going. And as stupid and naive as I was, it happened, didn’t it?"

 _But what about us?_ Makoto wants to ask. But he knows the connection that Rin has with the other two, particularly with Haru because although their relationships with him are different, Haru means something incredible to both boys, and vice versa. Even if they didn’t end up in Tokyo together, Makoto knows that his best friend will always play an important part of his life.

But that doesn't mean that Makoto doesn't value the others on a high level: Nagisa, Gou, Rei...Rin. He can't help but wonder what life after graduating high school and moving away means for their friendship. Are they doomed to be nothing more than a passing glimpse in each other’s lives, only a dull memory when recalling their schooling years?

Rin tucks his hands behind his head, posed so he has the perfect image of the ocean and sky over his knees. “God, I can’t believe I’m going back. I think all of us are going to find ways to still hang out together though…” Rin trails off, blowing a thin stream of beer-concentrated air out before continuing, “The bond we all have is too strong to be broken up over something as stupid as distance."

It’s probably the alcohol talking, Makoto justifies, a mixture of that plus his joy in getting nostalgic with Rin, preferably via embarrassment. “So you still believe in fate, huh?” He leans back so that he matches Rin’s pose on the rock and bumps his shoulder into his.

Again, the alcohol taking over. Definitely.

Rin looks down at where their shoulders just collided, lips parted open and eyes wide in surprise, but barks in response: “No! I mean. Whatever, Makoto, I was twelve, and stupid, and -"

“There’s nothing wrong with it, Rin.” Makoto laughs, looking up into the sky. The colors blend together like one of Haru’s paintings of the water, but with colors that are warmer and somehow even more peaceful. 

“Well, I know you don’t.” Rin remarks.

Makoto blinks, eyes fixed on the sky. “Oh…"

“I mean, it’s not a big deal. I don’t really either - you just figured it out earlier than me, because you were a forty year old in a twelve year old’s body, I don’t know. But it’s fun being idealistic about these things every once in a while."

Another hour passes, the boys are tipsy after three cans each, and their positions haven’t changed, though the scene around them has become darker, an inky black sky and sea, pinpricked by thousands of stars only a small town out in the countryside can provide. Makoto’s going to miss this view in Tokyo, trading the stars for thousands of artificial lights instead, the soft crashes of waves replaced by honking horns and millions of conversations in hundreds of different languages. 

Rin’s a bit closer to Makoto now, his head on Makoto’s shoulder, as if this was totally natural. Makoto’s totally fine with this though, as he’s the one who’s looped his arm over Rin’s, his hand resting on Rin’s lower thigh.

They speak in whispers now, giggling whispers mostly, as if the empty beach is instead full of spying wanderers excited to eavesdrop on two drunken teenage boys.

“Hey, Rin?"

“Mmhmm."

“Do you believe in soulmates?"

Rin’s silent for a second, but hoarsely whispers, “I do."

He doesn’t know why, but this isn’t the answer that Makoto wanted to hear. His stomach hurts, hit with an emotional punch, and he doesn’t bring up the topic again.

~

Sometimes, often times, things happen and it just makes sense. Makoto doesn’t consider it fate, but it’s something that is just known, an undeniable truth to even the smallest iota of doubt. It’s things like Haru’s eternal love for the water, Sousuke’s face falling in the most childish expressions of terror when they see the dead pigs at the butcher's, Rei’s vocabulary expanding by a hundred more university-level words every time Makoto skypes with him.

Other things, most of the time, things don’t go the way as expected. They’re not even a part of the plan, not a blip on the radar, but despite them not making a lick of sense, life isn’t meant to be easy, Makoto’s learned early on, but it’s these events that end up with the strongest impact. It’s Nagisa’s decision to move to England for university, Makoto joining his university swim team, the end of the Mikoshibas’ crushes on Gou.

It was never meant to be “Makoto and Rin.” No one ever coined the two together in any suggestion outside of their once shared captainship, their love of cats, their role of parents over their group of friends.

Makoto reminds himself of this as his feelings for Rin snowball into something more passionate, more powerful. He couldn’t pinpoint a precise moment that he looked at his friend and went _oh_ , nor did he think that the moment they met, they impacted each other for the rest of their lives. 

So when it's Makoto and Rin standing under the awning, basked in the light outside Makoto’s apartment in an attempt to escape the rain, soaked through their clothes and skin clammy cold, Makoto wonders why it's him of all people under here with Rin. They've been teammates and classmates and good friends, but just the two of them? Hands tightly held, partly to gain warmth, partly because despite fingers not quite intertwining perfectly, the way their callused athletes’ hands sends their hearts racing...

When Rin looks up at Makoto, registers the scene around them, and smiles with his back to the front door, Makoto knows that this isn’t what’s supposed to happen. It doesn’t feel right, like puzzle pieces falling into place. Makoto and Rin aren’t bound by a red string in something romantic, but fuck it, it's what both of them want, and Makoto beats Rin to the punch, pushes back his hair, slicks back Rin's right after, places cold hand on cold cheek, and leans in.

No, there are no fireworks that go off. Violins didn’t swell and probably to Rin’s chagrin, sakura petals didn’t fall everywhere. 

But from the way Rin hastily peels Makoto’s clothes off when they get inside, from the way Makoto presses Rin onto his couch, from the giggles that arise when Makoto’s foot knocks into the decorative fern and sends it flying to the ground...Makoto would take all of that, the new rush of excitement in unpredictability, over what some external force predicts for them in every single way.

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe it's just me, but as someone who doesn't believe in fate, the idea that Makoto and Rin aren't bound by anything intrigues me and appeals to me about them more. I'm not quite sure if it came across in the fic, but I wanted to play around with the idea of "hey, we're not soulmates, but we like each other so who cares"


End file.
